A Baltimore County jury will begin considering on Thursday morning the case of Benjamin W. Shorter, a former military corpsman who is accused to beating to death a man last year in the men's room of a Catonsville bar.
Testimony in Shorter's trial wrapped up Wednesday, after a visit by the jury to Morsberger's Tavern, where Franklin J. Schissler died on March 29, 2009, of what an autopsy determined was a heart attack caused by the stress of a severe assault. Photographs of the victim were presented to the jury and showed his face bloodied, swollen and bruised, his left eyelid torn. In all, there were 11 wounds on his face, head, neck and back.
The 42-year-old defendant had planned to take the stand in his own defense, against his lawyer's advice, but changed his mind. Shorter iis charged with first-degree murder and seven other charges. His attorney argued Wednesday that prosecutors lacked proof that Shorter intended to kill Schissler..
Assistant State's Attorney Matthew H. Darnbrough told the jury in his closing remarks Shorter's contention in an interview with police that Schissler had provoked a fight with him and that he was merely defending himself. The prosecutor said the claim was ludicrous and not supported by testimony from witnesses.
During the trial, people who were in the bar that day testified that Shorter had become angry when someone, as a joke, had placed handcuffs on a woman Shorter considered his girlfriend.
When someone else, also in jest, pointed to Schissler as the man responsible for the handcuffing, Shorter followed him into the restroom and began pummeling him with his fists, boots and knees, witnesses said.
"You're killing him," Henry Coates, one of the witnesses, recalled telling Shorter.
"No, I'm just putting him to sleep," Shorter replied in what the prosecutor said was a "somber" tone.
Darnbrough told the jury that Schissler was a 66-year-old obese man who had been treated his entire adult life for schizophrenia but who liked going to the bar to drink beer, which he sipped quietly, usually by himself. He never bothered anyone, patrons said.
Shorter's lawyer, Hossein R. Parvizian, a public defender, said the state had not proved that Shorter intended to kill Schissler. Parvizian asked the jury to put themselves in his client's shoes, and "take into consideration a guy whose life has been disrupted by this -- to all intents and purposes -- practical joke."